Big Island crystal meth epidemic causing rise in child abandonment

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — Family violence caused by the use of crystal methamphetamine has reached epidemic proportions on the Big Island, according to community leaders, social workers and police who will be discussing the problem this week in Kona and Hilo.

It has gotten so bad that users of the drug commonly known as ice are abandoning their children and abusing household pets, according to county officials.

The first session, already overbooked, will be at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow at Nani Mau Gardens. It features drug expert Trinka Poratta, a national figure on the problem of violence and drug abuse. That program also will deal with "club drugs."

The second event will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Kealakehe Intermediate School in North Kona by the newly formed Community Response to Ice, known as CRI.

Councilwoman Nancy Pisicchio, who has worked for a year on the ice problem in West Hawai'i, said she is stunned by the level of violence against women, children and even pets by the users. There are a lot children being abandoned, she said.

Susan McCree, who supervises 150 cases in Ka'u and Kona for the state Child Welfare Services, said she believes about 85 percent of the children come from families with ice users.

McCree said the behavior of parents on ice is different from those on alcohol or other drugs. "They forget they have kids," she said, noting they do not fight to keep them as they usually do in other situations. "They just walk away after the first hearing."

She said the abusers come from all ethnic and income groups. Schools are affected because students attend classes wearing the same rumpled clothes day after day. They often are hungry and tired because their parents have been up all night using ice, she said. She believes more women abandoned their children than men.

"There is a lot of phenomena in dealing with this problem," she said.

Capt. John Dawrs of Kona said ignoring children is what separates ice from other drug users.

"Most parents will fight to get back their kids, whether they are on cocaine or heroin. But with ice, they just don't seem to care," he said.

Crime is up in neighborhoods where ice is sold and used, according to Pisicchio.

Dawrs said he does not disagree but it is hard to pinpoint neighborhood figures because crime totals are kept for both North and South Kona combined. "Much of our property crime (burglaries and thefts) are related to drugs, particularly ice," Dawrs said.

At Thursday's session, Pisicchio said doctors will discuss the permanent brain damage suffered by users. Also on the program is Mayor Harry Kim, who earlier this year declared war on ice and urged police to make it a priority.